


Chasing the Wind

by tfm



Series: Endless Summer [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 03:07:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19844293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tfm/pseuds/tfm
Summary: She remembers staring up, at the sky, through the cracked glass of her face shield, seeing the figure looming over her. She must have been barely conscious at this point, because she could have sworn she’d seen the lightning burst from the figure’s shoulder blades, like wings.After that, she doesn’t remember anything.





	Chasing the Wind

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be a fun drabble.

Beau blinks awake.

She’d sort of half not expected to, given that the last she remembers is riding her bike through a storm over the Bazzoxan Pass, and swerving to avoid an animal that crossed her path.

‘Beau!’ says a voice, and Beau frowns. That’s Jester’s voice, but Jester isn’t in Xhorhas, she’s back in Nicodranas, because she hadn’t want to travel halfway across the world to ride a motorbike through one of the most dangerous routes in the world.

Beau’s starting to think that she might have had the right idea. There’s a tube down her throat, and from the feel of it, tubes in other various places, and half her body is wrapped in bandages.

‘Hey, Jes,’ she tries to say, but her mouth hurts, and it’s hard to talk around the tube.

‘They thought you might not wake up,’ Jester says. She looks as pale as Beau’s ever seen her, which is a pretty good achievement, seeing as how the tiefling is usually a very, very bright blue. ‘I had to fly here from Nicodranas to see you, just in case—’ She cuts herself off, and is quiet, all of a sudden. Beau finishes the thought inside her head.

_Just in case you didn’t make it_.

It must have been pretty bad, Beau thinks, and then she gets the laundry list of injuries from Jester; broken hip, broken collarbone, two broken legs...Beau sort of stops listening after that. She’d wondered why there had been a dull sort of throb around all of her body. She must be on a ton of drugs.

‘—they had you in a medically induced coma for like...two weeks,’ Jester finishes. ‘They weren’t sure you were going to make it.’

‘Cool,’ Beau mutters. The doctors come in after that, and give her a check-over. Jester doesn’t leave, and Beau’s glad for it. She’s still kind of half-worried that she might close her eyes, and never wake up.

They take out the feeding tube, and test her out on some food that’s practically mush, but Beau manages to keep it down without throwing up, which is probably a good thing.

‘Did someone call my parents?’ she asks, and she’s already pretty sure she knows the answer.

‘I, ah...I spoke to them,’ Jester says. ‘Well, I spoke to them, and then mama screamed at them.’ She pauses. ‘They said not to bother them unless you actually die, and then to send them the bill for the funeral.’ She turns her head, awkwardly. Beau gives a half snort.

‘Well, they’re willing to pay for the funeral. That’s something.’ She frowns. ‘How did I get here, anyway?’ she asks. She assumes she’s in Rosohna, the biggest city in Xhorhas, and a long fucking way from the Bazzoxan Pass.

‘What do you remember?’

Beau frowns. She remembers the streaks of lightning, the rain lashing against her helmet (thank Ioun she’d been wearing full safety gear, because otherwise it could have been a lot worse). She remembers swerving, and spinning out, and sliding down a muddy, rocky hill. She’d been going at almost sixty miles an hour, so it’s not entirely surprising.

She remembers staring up, at the sky, through the cracked glass of her face shield, seeing the figure looming over her. She must have been barely conscious at this point, because she could have sworn she’d seen the lightning burst from the figure’s shoulder blades, like wings.

After that, she doesn’t remember anything.

‘Not much,’ is what she says.

‘There was another biker out there,’ Jester tells her. ‘She saw you go down, and stayed with you until the helicopter got there.’

Helicopter? Beau’s a little impressed. As impressed as she is grateful that a complete stranger had bothered to save her life. ‘Well, I hope you got her details, so I can send some flowers.’

Jester gives her a chaotic sort of grin. ‘She’s been coming to visit you. Wanting to make sure you’re okay. I told her I’d text when you woke up. She said she’s on her way.’

The news startles Beau. She’s been covered practically from head to toe in bandages, has been pissing into a catheter, and if she’s not mistaken, shitting into a diaper. It’s bad enough that Jester’s probably seen some things, let alone a complete stranger.

With one arm in a sling, and the other not quite at the point of responding to the commands she sent it, she can’t even really fix her hair, let alone all the other stuff.

The woman, when she comes, is so tall, she has to duck through the door. She has long dark hair that’s braided, and the tips of it have been dyed white. She’s wearing a bright yellow sundress, which shows off some seriously impressive muscles. If Beau hadn’t already been pretty much unable to move, she’s pretty sure she would have frozen anyway.

Beau doesn’t think she’s ever seen anyone more gorgeous in her entire life. Of course, that could be the drugs talking.

‘Ah, hallo,’ the woman says, in Common, though her Common has a light Xhorhasian accent to it. She takes off her sunglasses, and Beau can see immediately that her eyes are two different colors; one a bright green, the other a deep violet.

‘Yasha!’ Jester jumps to her feet, and Beau is highly amused at the thought that Jester has pretty much spent the entire time she’s been sitting by Beau’s bed, making friends with this awkward, but fucking gorgeous giant of a woman. ‘She’s awake!’

‘Hi,’ Beau says. ‘I’d wave, but...’ She gestures to her broken collarbone. ‘You may not know, but I had something of an accident, recently.’

‘I did know that,’ the woman – Yasha – says, and a quirk of a smile is playing on her lips. She sits down on the chair next to Jester’s. ‘It was actually pretty scary. I thought you were going to die in my arms.’

‘Well, if I were to go out any way, I would have been happy for it to be in the arms of a beautiful woman,’ Beau says. There’s a long pause. ‘I’m sorry, I’m on a lot of drugs right now.’

‘I’m not surprised,’ Yasha says lightly. Her voice is unexpectedly soft for someone so big. ‘Your injuries were quite severe.’

‘Yeah.’ Beau goes to wiggle her arm, and regrets it immediately. She pauses. ‘Thanks for saving my life. I really appreciate it.’

Yasha smiles properly then, and it’s the most beautiful thing Beau’s ever seen in her life. ‘It’s very dangerous to be on that road in good weather,’ she says. Her voice isn’t admonishing, it’s more...worried. ‘And it’s...very, _very_ dangerous in bad weather. You should be more careful.’

Beau winces a little bit. She’d been expecting a bit of a dressing down from Jester, but not from this woman who she’s just met. She’s about to brush it off, when a thought hits her. ‘Why were _you_ out there?’

Yasha doesn’t answer.

She doesn’t stay long, but she does come back the next day, and the one after that. Then, there’s about three weeks of radio silence, by which point Beau is onto solid foods, and is allowed to be helped to the bathroom, instead of having to use a bedpan. It’s a small win.

Beau had pretty much thought she’d seen the last of her savior, but she’s playing cards with Jester one Grissen afternoon, when the tall woman ducks in under the doorway again. She’s wearing purple this time, and the color looks amazing on her, making that one violet eye pop. She’s carrying a bunch of wildflowers.

Beau, who’s on a lot less drugs this time (and is consequently in a lot more pain), has enough cognizance to remember that she’d been a little too forthright the last time they’d spoken. A little too open with her feelings.

‘Hi,’ she says, brightly. Jester stares at her. Given that she’s been grumpy as all fuck with Jester the last three days, it’s probably warranted.

‘I’m sorry it’s been so long,’ Yasha says. She hands the flowers over to Beau, a little awkwardly. Beau’s right shoulder is still in a sling, and she has cards in the other hand. ‘Oh, I’m sorry!’ A line of red crosses Yasha’s cheeks, and Beau can’t help but grin. Jester takes pity on both of them, and adds the flowers to the vase that’s sitting on the window sill. ‘I, uh...have had some things to take care of.’

Beau doesn’t mind. Given that she’s allowed to brush her hair now, and she’s looking a bit less like a hot mess.

Still, she’s not anywhere close to her best. She’s lost a shitton of muscle mass, since it’s apparently frowned upon to do one-armed pull-ups when you’re bedridden in a Xhorhasian hospital. She’s just lucky that her insurance will cover it.

Okay, it’s a little more than luck. After Jester hadn’t been able to talk Beau out of taking her trip, she’d at least made sure that Beau had gotten the best travel insurance available, just in case of any horrific accidents, like almost plummeting off of a cliff on the Bazzoxan Pass.

It’s a good thing, too, because, thanks to all the physical therapy she has to do, it’s another month before Beau’s allowed to leave the hospital.

Eventually, Beau manages to convince Jester to not come to the hospital every day. It’s boring as shit there, even when you’re not bedridden, and Beau estimates they’ve played about six hundred hands of Xhorhasian Poker.

On the days that she doesn’t come, Yasha does, to the point where Beau is pretty sure that Jester had texted her.

Yasha doesn’t need any convincing to tell Beau the truth. ‘She thinks you might get lonely,’ she says with a shrug.

‘With you, Yasha, I’m never lonely,’ Beau says with a grin. Yasha smiles.

‘You’re very forthright on the drugs,’ Yasha says. Beau doesn’t want to admit that they’ve dropped her dosage so much that she’s barely on anything right now.

In lieu of much else to do, they talk. Beau learns that Yasha is a storm chaser, which is why she’d been out on the fucking Bazzoxan Pass in the middle of a storm. She’d been trying to get some good photos.

‘Well, my excuse is that I’m a fucking idiot,’ Beau says, but she’s grinning, because “Beau is an idiot” is so much of a known quantity amongst her friends that it’s become a running joke.

‘I don’t think you’re an idiot,’ Yasha says, frowning. ‘A little reckless, perhaps, but not an idiot.’

Beau thinks that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to her. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the person saying it is very, very attractive.

‘Yeah, well, I’ve learned my lesson,’ Beau says, knowing that she absolutely has not learned her lesson. As soon as she gets back to Nicodranas, she’ll buy a new bike, and start preparing for the Tal’Dorei loop next year.

They have a lot of conversations like this, ranging in topic from bikes, to flowers (Yasha eagerly shows Beau the collection of flowers that she’s picked up in the middle of chasing storms), to the best shitty sci-fi movie on the planet (obviously _It Came from Port Damali_. Definitely not _Exandria Girls are Easy_ , Yasha).

Little by little, Beau finds lust turning into something a little bit more, and when she’s finally allowed to leave the hospital (limping considerably), Yasha is there to take her back to the hotel

Her Doctor had recommended that she stay in the area so she can complete her return to full strength, which means she and Jester stay in a pretty fucking nice hotel, the bill for which is being footed by Jester’s mother. Beau is very much aware of just how profusely she’s going to have to thank Marion Lavorre when she finally makes it back to Nicodranas. The insurance will cover a little bit of it, but not nearly enough.

A couple of times a week, Yasha comes over for dinner.

‘You know why she keeps coming, right?’ Jester asks, after Yasha leaves their hotel room. It’s ten in the morning on a Grissen, and they’d stayed up pretty much all night, watching those shitty sci-fi movies. Beau’s sitting at the counter, feet resting on the stool opposite her. She still has a boot on both feet, and there are pins pretty much from thigh to ankle. Getting back through airport security is going to be a bitch. According to Yasha, when she’d gotten to the place where Beau had come to rest, the mangled bike had been on top of her, crushing her into the mud.

It’s weird that she doesn’t remember that part.

‘Uh...’ Beau says. She’s thought about that, but had never quite gotten around to figuring an answer.

‘No? Because we’re such amazing and cool people?’ She spots an errant slice of pepperoni on the counter-top that had been overlooked the previous night, and eats it.

‘Because she likes you, dummy,’ Jester says, as though it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Beau’s brain short-circuits. ‘What?’ she says, even though she’d heard Jester perfectly well the first time.

‘Well, maybe not at first,’ Jester says, reasonably. ‘Like...when she found you broken, and bleeding and all of that, she probably couldn’t see your face through the helmet. But like...after visiting you, and hearing me talk about you, and then you woke up...’ She trails off.

Beau raises an eyebrow.

‘I think that’s a bit of a stretch,’ she says. After all, half that time she’d been bedridden, unable to hold anything close to an actual conversation. Though, she thinks, a little darkly, it’d be pretty on brand for her for someone to stop liking her as soon as she started talking to them.

Still, she can’t help but notice that the more she recovers – the more painstaking days of pulling herself across parallel bars to take a few single steps – the more antsy Yasha seems to get.

‘I don’t want you to leave,’ Yasha admits, after they’ve both probably had a few too many beers, and smoked a little bit too much weed. Jester, who’d only been drinking milk, and hadn’t smoked at all, had still somehow managed to fall asleep before either of them.

Beau blinks. She’s not sure whether she’d actually heard those words, or she just wants to hear them.

‘I...’ she starts. ‘I wish I could stay,’ she admits. She’s pretty much out of money, relying very much on Jester’s generosity. Every time she changes the date of her flight back to Nicodranas, she has to pay another hundred or so gold.

Yasha leans over to kiss Beau, and she doesn’t pull away.

When Beau wakes the next morning, curled into Yasha’s embrace, she smiles. She’s definitely going to have to come back to Xhorhas.


End file.
